Murasaki and Akiko sat by a small fire. The unconscious “officer” lay on the ground. His hands and feet were tied up using vines of trees that Akiko had broken off. Murasaki’s shadow bag and ropes had been retracted while he recuperated his energy. 

Akiko sat on a small tree trunk that she herself had brought to the ground. Looking disgruntled, she stared away from the fire and chomped down on some peanuts that she’d brought in a small plastic bag that was zipped up in her pants. Murasaki lay on the opposite side of the fire, on the soil and dried leaves that had fallen onto the earth. He breathed deeply, concentrating on his lungs with closed eyes. He didn’t have as much strength and stamina as Akiko so the fight and the succeeding climb had taken quite a toll on him. 

Akiko looked at him annoyedly. 

“Murasaki-san!”, she hissed.

No reply. 

Her frown deepened and she spoke louder, leaning in towards him, “MU RA SA KI - SA N!”

“Tch”, Murasaki sighed in exasperation and opened his eyes, “Why? What is it?”

Akiko groaned, “We’ve camped enough. Come onnn let’s goo!”

“I need to recover first”, Murasaki said rolling his eyes, “You just wanna see Himari-san”

“Ugh yes I dooo! You’ve stayed..”, Akiko paused to check the time on her watch, “20 minutes longer than usual!”

“Hey! I didn’t expect this mountain to be so steep. I didn’t expect most of what we went through today. I didn’t eat enough protein bars to account for all this!”, Murasaki explained, his voice subsequently getting louder and squeakier as he made expressive gestures with his hands. 

“Ugh”, Akiko rolled her eyes. 

Murasaki glanced at her and scoffed, “You go ahead then if you’re so impatient”

“Huh gladly!”, Akiko put her peanut bag back in her pocket and got up. She scoffed at Murasaki and began marching away from their campsite.

“Akiko-san, wait!”, he called out after her.

Akiko turned, “What?”. Murasaki smirked and pointed at their unconscious opponent and tilted his head. Akiko smiled sarcastically, walked back to the “officer” and lifted him up with ease. Then she began marching away again.

But just then they heard an unwelcome sound. Leaves rustling, fallen twigs being crushed, and hushed voices – someone was coming. 

Akiko turned back, fully alert and placed the officer quietly on the ground. She looked at Murasaki, who slowly and gradually sat up, fixated on the direction from which the sound was heard. Then he glanced back at her, frowning with confusion. Akiko’s heart raced. She quickly ran up to the fire and put it out with her foot. 

Now they were in total darkness. Save for the peeking moonlight. Were we followed? She wondered. 

She glanced at the unconscious “officer”. No. There’s no way he could have sent for backup. The dude’s knocked out. Or is he?? He could be pretending… 

Hurriedly, she began checking their opponent for visible bugs, chips, or any devices that he could have used to alert someone. The darkness didn’t help. Akiko could only see him barely under the moonlight so she relied on her touch. She searched his arms, legs, torso, neck, shoulders, hair, and face until something caught her eye. 

In his mouth, one of his upper molars was replaced with a luminous tooth that glowed blue and purple with a single blinking dull white light in the middle. It wasn't that difficult to find once she started looking. 

Akiko felt a rush in her temples and chest. 

This is it. This is the chip. They must have tracked his location through this. What should I do?? Should I pull it out?? 

She glanced at Murasaki. Only his dimly lit silhouette was visible. He was still sitting upright on the ground. Akiko deduced that he probably already had a weapon in his hand. A shadow weapon. 

If I pull out the tooth, then what? Will the pain wake him up? If he wakes up, he might scream. But does it matter? As long as the chip is there, they can find us all the same. 

The footsteps were getting louder. Twigs were snapping closer than ever and the voices were becoming slowly discernible. They were hushed, whispered voices, but Akiko and Murasaki could slightly understand. 

“...think it’s them?”

“...heard us”

“...put the fire out”

They were saying.

Akiko had to act quickly. Otherwise it’d be too late. It was already almost too late. I’ll quickly pull it out and knock him out again. She looked at Murasaki one last time. If there had been more time she could have asked him for a pair of pliers. But it was too late. I’ll try pulling it out on my own. She quickly bent over the man and held his mouth open. Akiko was about to pull out the glowing tooth when she suddenly heard something unexpected.

“Akiko? Murasaki?”, a girl’s voice called out.

“Kazuyuki?”, Akiko muttered under her breath. She turned around to see two robed figures standing in front of Murasaki. 

“Kazuyuki-san? Riku-san?”, Murasaki said out loud.

Of course, Akiko thought, only that disrespectful brat would address us without honorifics.

Kazuyuki lifted her index finger and a flame appeared on top of it, “What are you guys doing here?”, she asked blankly. 

Despite her dislike for Kazuyuki, Akiko felt intense relief upon seeing them. She liked fighting. On most occasions she would be readily up for a chance to throw hands. But this was not one of those occasions. She wanted to get to Himari fast. If they were attacked, Himari would have to fight alone while defending the two kids. Akiko felt thankful for Kazuyuki and Riku. Now they could all hurry uphill and join the others.   

“Chillin’”, Murasaki said nonchalantly. 

“Where’s Himari-san?”, Riku asked.

Akiko sighed, “We had to split up. But we gotta get back to them fast. I’ll tell you guys everything on the way. Can we please hurry up?”

“Who is that?”, Kazuyuki asked unfazed by Akiko’s request and pointed at the unconscious stranger next to her.

Akiko’s face immediately went red with anger. She yelled furiously, “Oi Kazuyuki! Didn’t you hear what I just said?? I’LL TELL YOU. ON. THE. WAY!!”

“Oi..Ssh!”, Murasaki hissed at Akiko, eyes wide.

“Ok”, Kazuyuki answered indifferently.

Murasaki got up and walked over to the “officer” intently. 

“What are you doing?”, Akiko asked.

“Gonna pack him up again”, Murasaki answered.

Akiko paused and then said, “Wait”. She bent down and opened the “officer”’s mouth. Murasaki saw the glowing tooth and immediately asked, “Wait, what’s that??”

“I need pliers”, Akiko replied calmly. Murasaki stood in confusion for a few seconds then complied.

Everyone exchanged glances. 

The plan had been discussed. They’d come up with a few changes and backup plans for a few emergency scenarios. But now all was decided. 

“If everything goes right we’ll be out of there with Takashi in about 20 minutes.”, Bavaka announced.

“But everything never goes right”, Zyc added, spitefully. 

Everyone gave him a “can you not?” look and moved on. 

Bavaka cleared her throat, “Anyway that’s true. Everything never goes right..”. This made Zyc scoff.

“...At least we have to expect that. That way we won’t get comfortable. Remember the backup plans guys.”, then she spoke in a lower voice, “No matter what goes wrong, we’re getting Takashi out of there tonight.”

Daiki felt a huge knot in his stomach. There he was, with strange people from a strange planet, about to break his best friend out of prison. And really he was still as clueless as he had been the day Takashi went missing. He knew more things but he still had no clue what to do and where all this would end up going. Even trust was a scary game for Daiki at this point. Who knows if they were the ones who kidnapped Takashi.

He had never been like this, Daiki. He never took things seriously. As Botan had once called it, Daiki used to laugh in the face of danger. He never had trust issues. He was never scared or suspicious of things. But now he could see so many possibilities that he never could before. Bad possibilities.

Who could he really turn to? His friends and family were far far away. Far away in their homes. Worried about him, probably. But he couldn’t reach them. And Takashi.. For all he knew he could be dead.

Daiki clenched his fist and stared expressionless. Bavaka noticed this. She spoke gently, “Hey.. I know that this is all so new to you. If you can’t trust us, you still don’t have to join us. We made a bunch of backup plans..”, she said.

“Takashi –”, Daiki paused and looked around, “If he really is in prison like you say – then he’s in this mess because of me. I got him involved in my stupid investigation. He was just trying to help me out”, then he stared Bavaka in the eyes and said firmly, “I’m gonna do this. Remember what I told you, Bavaka-san. If you guys betray me, then.. I’ll make you regret it”

Bavaka’s eyes grew wide. There was grit in his voice that she hadn’t heard before. She put her hand on his shoulder, “If it makes any difference, we trust in you. So let’s go save your friend now. Zyc, go out and give us an all clear.”

“Roger”

With that, Zyc opened his mouth and rolled out his long tongue. Daiki’s eyes widened at what happened next. Out flew a tiny bug that looked a lot like – but wasn’t quite – a fly. 

Whaaat the fuuuck, Daiki thought to himself. The bug flew towards the ladder that they’d earlier climbed down from, and disappeared through a tiny hole on the tunnel door.

“Zyc-san, what was that?”, Daiki asked. 

“Wait”, Zyc held up a finger. He shut his eyes and seemed to focus. But there was a faint smile on his face. He had always been proud of this ability and he rarely ran into anyone who was as surprised by nua as Daiki. The last person he’d been this excited to show it to was Nolowi, who was also crazy about nua, even though she was from Mirz. 

A few seconds later, the bug came back. Zyc opened his mouth and rolled out his tongue again. The bug flew inside and Zyc rolled his tongue back in. 

“That is QomQom”

“Qomwhat??”

Zyc chuckled, “I’ll explain later”

With that he went invisible. Daiki squinted his eyes. He tried to keep track of Zyc’s movement as he tossed stuff around on his way towards the ladder. He then climbed up and opened the tunnel door just a crack to get out. Then shut it just as fast. Swish. He was gone.

Then they waited. There was a long silence. It seemed to last about ten minutes. Daiki held his breath. At least he felt like it.

“Daiki-san, you clothes!”, just then Zakuvo threw a pile of white clothes at Daiki. He caught them and nodded. A pair of white trousers and a shirt. 

The plan was already in motion. 

Jupong ran up to Daiki and climbed on his back. Being the little man that he was, he could comfortably crouch there for a while without struggling. 

To Daiki’s surprise, Jupong was extremely light. 

Then he began dressing up on top of his existing clothes. The shirt was way too big for him. Daiki put his arms through the sleeves and buttoned up. 

With Jupong on his back, who was now covered up by the clothes, the oversized shirt fit perfectly. It looked like a lump on Daiki’s back. Then Bavaka walked up to him and cuffed his hands. Nolowi put a leash around his neck and handed the chain to Bavaka.

Daiki was pretending to be Bavaka’s and Nolowi’s prisoner. 

Jupong was pretending to be a lump on Daiki’s back.

The plan was simple. 

Enter Roggenkoh prison under the guise of bringing in a prisoner. Find Takashi’s cell, Break him out, fight their way back to the entrance and escape with Zakuvo. 

Zakuvo could increase and decrease his size as he wished. So it would be easy for them to get on his back and fly away when escaping. 

“Here, take this”, Bavaka handed Daiki a small rubbery button, “Put it in your ear”

Daiki glanced at her uncomfortably, “W-what is it?”

“Try it. Put it in your ear. I’ll show you”

Nervously, Daiki did as he was told. When the button touched the skin inside, it changed its texture into a gooey and cold one and quickly latched onto his ear’s concha. 

“Oh fuck!”, Daiki jumped at the weird sensation. 

Bavaka smiled. “Well? Can you hear me?”

“Y-yes”, Daiki nodded, his heart racing.

What the fuck is it??

“Good. Can you.. understand me?”

What?? Daiki thought. And that’s when it hit him.

“W-wait.. Is it..?? Is this..?”

“It’s a translator. It’s so that you don’t get confused in there. When we go inside Roggenkoh, everyone will be speaking in Mirzil”

Whoaaa!

“I’m speaking in Mirzil, right now”, Bavaka said with wonder in her voice. 

“W-what’s Mirzil?”, Daiki asked with similar wonder.

“The common language in Mirz”

The tunnel door opened, just a crack again, and Zyc held down two fingers. 

The “Go” sign. That’s the Go sign, Daiki told himself.

Bavaka took a deep final breath and glanced at her crew. 

“Alright everyone”, she said, the thrill in her voice contagious, “It’s time.”